ILLUSTRATION: PAPERLILY STUDIOS
‘A Woman’ and other poems
Thida Shania
A Woman
I am the foundation of home.
My whole family holds me by my legs.
I hold onto them.
I am the gardener to my offspring.
I nurture each flower.
Sometimes the water gets briny with my sweat.
I am the lamp that illuminates.
My body burns in darkness.
Pain — I could never feel my own.
I am the dancing doll of my house.
My tiny feet entertain everyone.
The floor beneath them sees red.
— —
An ox for a wad of paan
What does this air suffer from?
My lungs suffocate when I breathe.
Why does the sun look desolate?
There is twilight without dawn.
How can I satiate hunger?
An ox swapped for a wad of paan.
Where can I hide my body?
Corpses, everywhere in every house.
How can I die in my land?
My kin have been buried alive.
How can I cross the border?
Rivers bleed human blood.
What happened to the Queen of Justice?
I search for her everywhere —
nowhere I find her
This poem was previously published in Picking off New Shoots Will Not Stop the Spring: Witness Poems and Essays from Burma/Myanmar (1988-2021) (2022).
— —
Once
Don't answer on my behalf;
Grant me self-confidence just once.
Don't chide me to right my wrongs;
Notify me the difference just once.
Don't sustain my burden;
Let me depend on myself just once.
Don't protect me thousands of times;
Teach me self-defense, just once.
Don't presume me weak over my soft skin;
Realise my strength who conceived you once.
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Thida Shania is a young Rohingya poetess, artist and a mother. Her poems have been featured in ‘I Am Rohingya’, ‘Rohingya Dreams’ and other anthologies. She publishes her poems and drawings at Art Garden Rohingya.